Tales of the Abyss Time Endless
by Yu-tan
Summary: Pre-game Post game AU. A child is sentenced to death and brought before the VIII Emperor of Malkuth. What happens changes the course of Jade Balfour's life and in turn,  the course of history.
1. Chapter 1

[A/N: Way, way AU, though still in-game universe. This will probably be one of the last of my Abyss stories, if not the last because the others are way too embarrassing to post.]

"For crimes against the Empire and the Order, this court finds the defendant, Jade Balfour, guilty as charged and subsequently sentenced to death by-"

"Wait a sec. The death penalty, really?"

"Your Majesty, is there a problem-"

"Of course there is a problem." The emperor sat up straight in his seat at the center of the tribunal table for the first time since the day's proceedings had started literally, at the crack of dawn. After two cases of coin fraud, one civil dispute and a tea break, arrived a pale, tired looking youth in chains. Chains that were used to suppress fonists, he noticed. "The problem is, that he's a child."

"Yes, your Majesty, but there are unusual circumstances, if you read the file-"

"Are you implying I didn't read the file?" That shut down the goon sent by the Order of Lorelei pretty quickly. "Because I have. But, there is no trial record. Where is the record of the trial?"

Uncomfortable expressions. Someone volunteered an answer- "There was a military tribunal."

"A military tribunal? Really? And whose military did young Mr. Curtiss here represent? An army of one?"

"Your Majesty, what's important are the charges-"

"Charges brought forth in a private military tribunal- which, as the head of state and commander in chief I am shocked and offended I was not invited to, but furthermore I doubt he was given any sort of representation or really, even a chance to talk. He looks like he hasn't said anything since he was taken into state custody."

"Your majesty, please just sign the sentence."

"Are you attempting to subvert my authority as the Eighth Emperor of Malkuth? Because that is known as treason and I could build a pretty fair case out of that-"

The Cantor paled.

"But it's been a long day for all of us, so, I will put this sentence on hold indefinitely until further notice, meanwhile... Sorry, I'm being presumptuous. Mr. Curtiss, do you have any protest against this action?"

"No." The boy replied, looking neither surprised nor pleased.

"Do you agree to be sworn into the service of the Empire of Malkuth and the Emperor, ie. myself?"

"Yes."

Peony Upala Malkuth VIII signed a hastily scrawled order with a flourish, stamped it, handed it off to his aide and dismissed the shocked and grumbling unit from Daath. Needless to say he'll be hearing from them again, but they'll have to get the Fon Master to even challenge something like this.

"Find someone to prepare lunch, please, in the library. I'd like to have a chat with our new friend," he said brightly, scattering the leftover people. He needed some privacy.

"Now, you've said all of two words since you got here... are you normally this quiet or do you simply have nothing to say? Hint, it's two words that start with 't' and end in-"

"Thank you," Jade replied, clearly without enthusiasm, but at the very least with a hint of gratitude.

"You're very welcome. Shall I fetch someone to take those off for you?" he asked pointing to the heavy looking shackled.

"No, I can take care of it," he said softly, the fonic glyphs engraved into the metal glowing briefly, before crumbling like ash onto the floor.

"That are our newest fon slot suppressing tech you know," the emperor said appreciatively. The files didn't lie, this boy had talent. At first he found the charges a little hard to believe, but the longer he matched that unblinking red gaze, the more he started to believe. But he did not believe Jade should have been executed for it.

"I know. It's probably pretty effective against rogue fonists, but anyone with discipline can break it pretty easily-" he stopped himself short, looking a little surprised he even said that much.

"I take it you have an interest in the fonic artes then. No doubt, with that kind of talent. I hope to put it to good use, rather than have it wasted at the bottom of the bay. I hope you agree."

"I do."

"Then let's shake on it. I saved your life, so I hope you can return that in the future," he said, offering his right hand. The boy had a firm, fearless grip. He liked this kid already.

-  
"Blue is a good color for you," the emperor said appreciatively. The drab oversized prison shirt was replaced with a uniform from the military academy, he figured there were enough students to get away with borrowing one.

"If you say so, your majesty." The honorary title was awkward on his tongue.

"I think you can dispense with the title. Just Peony is fine. I have enough people calling for his majesty every day, and I can never shake the feeling they are looking for my father," he laughed easily, motioning for him to sit at the table set for two. "Eat! Food is medicine."

"Ok... Peony." The name was only marginally less awkward, but then again... everything about today was like a dream. After spending two weeks in a lightless, freezing cell in Keterburg and then being ferried in a crate like produce to Grand Chokmah, and then brought before a room of strangers and told he was going to die, before this eccentric monarch intervened... it was shocking, and Jade had honestly thought nothing could do that to him anymore. Peony looked too young to be a monarch, barely into his thirties, but seemed quite used to the power and responsibilities.

"So, tell me about yourself, Jade."

"I'm sure it was all in my file-"

"I mean about _you_, not what you've done. We can talk about that another time. I mean like, how old are you?"

"Thirteen," he replied, picking up his knife and fork.

"Where were you born?"

"Keterburg."

"What about your parents?"

"Deceased."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Clearly Jade was not keen on volunteering information about himself. "Do you think I did the right thing?"

"The right thing about what?" Although, it was evident that question didn't need to be asked.

"Sparing your life."

Jade gave no reply. It was clear what he thought about Peony's decision.

"Can't sleep?"

The fon lamps were out, only the light from the moon illuminating the darkness. Peony found himself unable to sleep, worried by the way that talk ended at dinner. He had wandered over to Jade's room on a hunch, unsurprised to see the boy staring contemplatively at the window. That look suited him.

"Are you in the habit of stealing cutlery?"

The blade of the knife gleamed in Jade's hand. He was holding it loosely at his side, like an odd accessory.

"What were you going to do with that?"

"I don't know," he said quietly.

"You never answered my question earlier. Did I make the right choice?"

"I don't know." he said again.

"I read what the file said. I assume... you don't deny the charges?"

"No... they are all true."

"They were going to execute you... Do you think you deserve to die?"

"Maybe." A shadow of uncertainty. Up until now, Jade appeared to the world as a serious, mature boy who had so much talent, but now all Peony saw was a boy, scared, uncertain, and completely alone in the world.

"Well, I don't think you do. That's why I postponed your trial and had your file destroyed."

"Why are you doing this for me?" Jade asked suddenly.

"Because... you're special, I suppose. Despite what you've done- those terrible things- you deserve another chance. You can do good for this world. I'm a good judge of these kinds of things," he said, trying his best to sound confident.

Jade smiled weakly at him. The first time he saw the boy smile.

"I hope you're right."

"I'm sure. I'm not an emperor for nothing. Now, you should sleep. You're going to be up early tomorrow. And please, return my steak knife. They will be upset with an incomplete set, since it's an antique."

"Here," Jade said, returning it to him.

Impulsively, he hugged him. Clearly Jade wasn't used to human contact, but he didn't care. This kid needed a hug. Briefly, as he held that fragile thirteen year old boy to his chest, he remembered his own son, halfway across the country, probably around Jade's age. His chest ached.

-  
"When did you start learning fonic artes?"

The sun was just peeking over the horizon, and the faint glimmer of the fon belt could still be seen from the hill they were hiking up. He needed a private place to get an idea of Jade's abilities without alarming security. Few people were happy about his decision to take Jade under his protection, but perhaps it might be the other way around one day.

"I was five years old when my abilities began to manifest."

"That's very early," he said, impressed. He was a prodigy, no doubt. "How many types can you control?"

"All of them. Except the seventh," Jade replied softly, bitterness underlying his words.

"Your eyes aren't natural, are they? Some sort of fon operation?"

"Slot enhancers on the retinal fonslots."

"Who would do that to a kid?"

"I did them myself."

That was a chilling thought. Peony had no talent with the fonic artes, like the general populace. It was considered talent to master a fonon, exceptional to control three or four. But all six, at such a young age, combined with the ruthlessness to perform a potentially disabling operation on yourself, all for the sake for power... Some would say that made him a-"

"A monster. That's what you're thinking, right?" Jade said, casting a neutral glance at him.

"Er, I wouldn't use that word, exactly but-"

"But most people do, when they find this out. That's what they said, when they came to get me. 'You are a monster and you will be put down'," he said, with maybe a touch of pride in his voice.

"Is fomicry such a horrific thing?"

"More than you can imagine."

"Well, I'm not the expert. You are. So, tell me about it. Fomicry. If you don't mind."

They took a break at the top of the hill, staring at the great walls of the city in the distance.

"It's the process by which one can replicate objects by obtaining the fonic frequency and then generating it... It's fairly simple."

"How simple?"

"I can do it right now," Jade said calmly, picking up a branch. Carefully, he drew a glyph in the dirt with the tip. "Do you have anything unique, that you are very familiar with?"

Peony thought briefly about what they brought with them. Then he slipped the traditional blue stone out of his hair, handing it to Jade. "It's a-"

There was a crackle of electricity and the warping of fonons as it broke into several pieces in Jade's palm.

"-priceless heirloom..."

Wordlessly, he placed the pieces inside the glyph and there was a brief flash and a wave of heat- the air crackled with raw power just barely reigned in by those slim, pale hands. Peony peered over Jade's shoulder and found himself staring at the original in several pieces on the ground, and its twin, in his original pristine state. He picked it up, holding it up to the light.

"So this is just like the original?

"It's exactly the same." Jade said pedantically. "For all intents and purposes it is the original, because they have matching fonic frequencies."

"Interesting... Although, it still isn't the same. There are the pieces of the old one."

"I can dispose of it for you-"

Peony grabbed his wrist before he could disintegrate them or something. "Why don't you keep it, as a reminder?" he said, gathering up the remains.

"Reminder for what?"

"For what's to come."

"How are things at the lab?" Peony asked as they walked down to the gardens together. A month had already passed since Jade started to work at the newly created Fomicry research facility near the palace and the adjoining military base.

"Fine. The trials have really come along in a short time."

"Thanks to you single handedly pioneering the project, am I right?"

"I suppose." Jade said, brow furrowing. That day he stood before that burning house and the blood on the snow, he was certain he would never try fomicry again. Yet, because of these circumstances, he will inevitably do so. However, he couldn't bring himself to resent Peony because after all, it was his own choice. And only he could do this. Every day, the small bag containing the pieces of that blue stone hung around his neck reminded him of this fact. "So, what are we doing out here?"

"I figured, you've been cooped up in that lab for a while, it's time to get some physical activity in your schedule. Do you spar?"

Jade looked a little apprehensive. "I can defend myself, if that's what you're asking."

"Well, let's see then."

"Isn't this going to attract a lot of attention?"

"Only if you let yourself get distracted. Hurry up, you probably don't want to ruin your jacket," Peony said, casually hanging the blasted fiddly bits of his wardrobe on a bush before adopting a defensive stance. "No fonic artes, just you. Try to land a hit."

Jade circled slowly, his stance wary and light, suited for someone with a smaller frame. Clearly he had experience in combat, but maybe not with other people. His stance mimicked some of the monsters Peony encountered in the north, with the same cold, calculating look. And when he struck, Jade was almost quicker than he was. Almost.

"Almost had me there, you're very quick," he commented, extended a hand to help Jade up, who had been knocked flat on his back. Predictably he ignored his help, brushing the dirt of his pants.

"So are you."

"Well, my life is very valuable to me. Try again."

This time Jade didn't wait, springing forward- too obvious, to Peony, who dodged the feint and countered, aiming for the solar plexus. But his opponent knew better, parrying and very nearly landing a kick to his shin, before being thrown off balance by an effective blow to the shoulder.

"You have an unusual style of fighting. Who taught you?"

"No one," Jade said, looking just a little agitated. Clearly he wasn't used to coming out on the bottom of conflicts. Peony had to admit it was a little unfair, but perhaps necessary.

"Judging from your movements... you have experience hunting? Creatures in the north with a lower center of gravity and considerable more weight?"

"Something like that-" Jade didn't waste any words, already coming at him again. He actually managed to push the emperor back a couple times, but inexperience fighting people and the disadvantage of having a shorter range meant that round ended with new bruises.

"You'll be an excellent fighter when you're older, you'll just have to make up for it for now."

"Why exactly are you personally seeing to my combat training? Don't you have people for this-" Jade started, taking a cautious break to try and find an opening.

"Because my life is very valuable to me," Peony reiterated with a grin, blocking the first kick that came towards his face, already moving to intercept the blow he anticipated to his torso, but never came. Instead, Jade aimed another kick high, to the shoulder that left an opening when Peony shifted his stance to block. The emperor realized this a split second too late, but was met with another surprise as Jade's strike stopped a hair's breadth from making contact.

"Good one. Why did you stop?"

"Isn't that against the law? To strike a monarch?"

Peony doubled over in laughter. It just seemed so... out of character, to worry about something like that, especially after pretty much getting his ass kicked...

"What's so funny?"

"N-nothing, Jade, you are technically correct, but for the sake of the exercise I think we can suspend that rule-hrk"

"Ok." Jade said, after sucker punching him in the gut. For a pretty light kid, he knew how to put his weight into it, Peony thought appreciatively while trying to get air back in his lungs. "Congratulations," he gasped, finally standing back up. "I think we're done for today." They picked up their things, heading back to the palace.

"So, are you big on hunting game?"

"Something like that," Jade answered vaguely. He was used to hunting, but not for sport. Research. He recalled how much his sister hated that particular hobby of his. "I'm going back to the lab now... Thanks."

Peony ruffled his hair affectionately. "Don't work too hard."

"How old are you, Peony?" Jade asked one afternoon, over tea.

"Almost thirty two. Why?"

"Well, your birthday is coming up in a week isn't it? Coincidentally, a national holiday."

"Right. I almost forgot," Peony said easily, being truthful. Lately he had been so busy it hardly occurred to him it was almost his birthday, again. "I suppose once you get to that age, you tend to want to dwell less on your birthday. When's yours?"

"The eleventh day of the eleventh month," Jade replied.

"You'll be turning... 14?"

Jade nodded. Apparently he didn't like to think about it much either.

A week later, was Peony's birthday and Jade's formal introduction to Grand Chokmah's aristocracy. The event was held in the grandest hall of the palace and Jade spent most of his effort trying to subtly avoid having to talk while Peony was actively introducing him to literally every guest. He did meet an interesting individual though, when he sought asylum on one of the empty terraces.

"Not good with crowds?" A tall, regal looking woman inquired politely from the shadows.

"It's all politics. I'm really not interested."

Her laugh was gentle, as was her gaze. "That's a refreshing change. Politics is everything here. What's your name?"

"Jade Balfour."

"I don't recall a House of Balfour registered in the ancestral records..."

"I don't belong to a House."

"Really." Her interest was piqued. "Where do you live?"

"Here."

"My, my. Are you close to his majesty?"

Jade paused, considering that question. "Not really. I'm the director of the lab next door."

"You're awfully young to be directing anything- of course, I don't mean any offense. Clearly, you're special."

He shrugged, trying to find an excuse to leave, except he had made it apparent he wanted nothing to do with the party. And this woman made him uneasy, in a way he couldn't exactly explain.

"You're such a beautiful child," she said dreamily, "He would be your age-"

"Jade, who is your new friend-" That familiar, rambunctious tone cut through the tension, but the emperor's voice faded when he came face to face with pair. "Ah. I knew you two would get on famously, two anti social butterflies in a corner. Jade, this is my wife, properly known as Empress Carlotta, but she's just my Lottie," he said with a grin, before getting tweaked on the nose.

"I told you not to call me that in public!" she said, without any real annoyance. "I think I will retire. Don't wear this poor boy out, Peony." she said, sweeping past the both of them.

"That was the first time you met her, right?"

Jade nodded silently. Naturally, Peony would have a wife, as the monarch of the empire. It was puzzling that it had been this long before he actually met her though. "She doesn't live in the palace, does she?"

"You are correct. She spends most of the year convalescing in the southern territories, where its better for her health."

"I see... What's wrong with her?" Jade asked bluntly.

Peony leaned against the marble railing of the terrace. "We were betrothed when we were still very young- things weren't as bad with Kimlasca as they are now. We were wed when we were 17 and our first son was born a year later. Shortly thereafter, war broke out...Well, I'm sure you know how that went. Let me ask you a simple question: How many children do I have?"

"There's only a single heir to the Malkuthian Empire, and the crown prince's whereabouts are currently classified for fear of assassination by Kimlasca," Jade answered promptly. This was all basic history.

"I was afraid you'd say that. Follow me." They left the palace, striding through the sea of people easily, slipping into the gardens. Jade was already familiar with the layout, so he was unsure what Peony had to show him that was new.

Peony stopped at the main courtyard, ringed by eight white dogwood trees, in full blossom in the summer night.

"Lottie had these planted here because we couldn't have any marked graves for the seven children she lost."

"There are eight trees."

"I know. I can't figure out whether the last tree is for me, or for our surviving son."

The emperor sighed, the sorrow evident in his gaze, usually so full of energy and enthusiasm. Those broad shoulders that were always set back in defiance to all stooped ever so slightly.

"I'm sorry for dragging you here..."

"It's fine," Jade said, taking a seat beside Peony.

"I just wanted to explain... how this changed her. She used to be full of so much life... but as you can imagine, to suffer such a loss as a mother..."

"You are a father, too."

"I know, but my responsibilities extend to the entire empire. I can't help but fear she hates me... deep down. You would hate someone too, for indirectly resulting in the murder of your children?"

"I wouldn't know how I would feel."

"I hope you never do," he said gravely, listening as the wind rustles the branches of those beautiful, slender trees. "So, the empress stays at the villa in Chesedonia for most of the year, except when it would be odd for her to be absent at a social event. Like my birthday," he said, the bitterness in his tone betraying him. "I'm sure if she had the choice, she would never come back to this city ever again or see my face for the rest of her life."

Suddenly, the garden was a considerably more depressing place to Jade. He understood the emperor a little more, but still had no way to comfort him. It just wasn't in his nature.

"I shouldn't have put this all on you. You're just a child, after all."

"Do you really consider me a child?"

Peony laughed, a little too harshly. "No, I suppose not. You're more of an adult than most adults I know. But that can be a bad thing too," he said quietly. "Don't be in a hurry to grow up."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said, before turning to walk back to the palace, leaving the emperor to mourn by the trees.

When Peony returned to his room several hours later, he was about to collapse on the bed with exhaustion, but noticed something was left on the windowsill that wasn't there before. It was a fonglobe, masterfully crafted with a miniature model of the Imperial city inside. The water fonons contained in the globe glowed comfortingly. Etched in the flattened bottom were the words, "Happy birthday -J" Peony smiled, setting it on the nightstand. Despite the miserable evening, he slept well.

11:45. He had fifteen minutes to log the benchmark results and then restart the testing cycle. Everyone else had left the lab, leaving him to work with a few lights on and a silence few would appreciate. Fifteen minutes later, the machines whirred to life, signaling the restart of the 17 hour cycling. Mechanizing fomicry with algorithms and theoretical fonology was not an easy or quick task. Maybe a short nap was in order-

"It's my favorite under age workaholic, Jade!"

Barging through the lab like he owned the place (Well, technically he did) was Peony, carrying several bags in with him.

"It's my favorite geriatric unorthodox monarch, Peony," Jade replied dryly. "It's midnight you know."

"It's your birthday, you know."

In the twelve months they've known each other, from the day they met in that imposing throne room, to today, in the lab, they've gotten used to each other, in a strange territory beyond subject and ruler, that an almost twenty year age difference couldn't quite explain.

"I know."

"I brought a cake."

"I hate cake."

"I know." Peony said with a grin, setting it out anyway as Jade scowled, rescuing papers and important documents from crumbs and icing. Haphazardly, he stuck fourteen candles into the white frosted surface. "Shoot, I forgot matches," he said, patting his pockets absently.

"Not a problem," Jade said, lighting the candles simultaneously without even lifting his hand.

"Handy. Now, make a wish! Blow them out!"

"What is the point of this exercise?"

"There isn't a point. Just do it!" Peony insisted, smiling happily as he shut off all the lights. The candles cast a cheery glow in contrast to the cold fluorescence lights. Jade sighed, as if he were the adult put upon by a child, closed his eyes and blew out the candles, plunging the room into darkness again.

"What did you wish for?"

Conveniently, Peony couldn't see him flush in the darkness. He could never reveal what came to mind in the split second before he blew out those fourteen flickering spots of light.

"World peace." he answered sarcastically, leaving to turn the lights back on again. Once again they had to hide small changes in expression and unsaid gestures in the unforgiving light.

"Ever the humanitarian." Peony said, smiling as he cut two slices of cake. "Oh, I almost forgot. This is for you," he said, taking a flat, wrapped package out of the other bag he was carrying.

"You shouldn't have," Jade remarked, unwrapping the dense tome on fon particle theory. "It's a first edition too," Jade actually sounded touched for once.

"I knew you would like it. Happy birthday, Jade."

"Thank you."

"I hope you like it here. Sometimes I worry I'm robbing you of your youth."

"Hardly. I can't really imagine doing anything else."

"Well, you could go to school. You are wearing the uniform for the military academy."

Jade made a face. "Not really my thing."

"Are you sure? It might be a good thing to spend time with your peers." Peony said, brow furrowing in worry. He knew Jade was not a child, but he wasn't an adult either. He was not his son, but he wasn't unrelated to him anymore. It was a long shot, but he wanted him to feel comfortable around people, not just him.

"I have you," Jade said simply, "But... if it means that much to you, I'll go. To see if I like it," he said grudgingly.

"Great," Peony said, smiling. "Let's see... who owes me a favor..." Peony was filling in the mostly completed enrollment form. Clearly, he had planned this all along. "I think the Curtiss' still owe me one for the arms dealing... 'Jade Curtiss', that has a nice ring to it."

"I need a new name too?"

"Few people know who you really are. Luckily you managed to avoid meeting anyone who would remember your name, so an adoption wouldn't be too out there. Does it bother you?"

"Not really. Balfour doesn't mean anything to me," Jade said, signing the bottom of the enrollment form with his new signature.

"Think of it as your new life, officially starting now," he said.

"I don't have to live in the dormitory, do I?" Jade said with clear distaste.

Peony laughed. Maybe he was a little afraid Jade did want to leave, so it relieved him to hear that. "No, you are free to stay here. You always are."

The last time Jade was in school, it was in a simple, one room class room with the most important person in his life at the front. This time, it was a expansive, affluent campus with several grades of students, identified by the detail of their uniforms, milling about, chatting in small groups. Jade declined being put in the upper levels, because he quote "Didn't want to make anyone feel too bad about themselves," and agreed to observe quietly in the grade associated with his age. It was really a terrible exercise, but if it brought the emperor some peace of mind, he would suffer through it.

After reporting to the administrative office, he was ushered to his classroom, although he was perfectly capable of finding it himself. Then he was forced to introduce himself, as Jade Curtiss, walk by the stares, some interested and some vacant, then take a seat in the back.

The rest of the day was a blur.

"How was your first day?" Peony said, bounding over in excitement. Jade just slid into his chair, closing his eyes.

"Exhausting."

"You are only fourteen! Where is the exhuberance of youth?" Peony asked, pouring tea.

"Must have left it back home, do you have a spare?" he replied dryly. It honestly wasn't that bad, besides the prying questions that were expected of the new student who was declared the new individual of mystery- after all, he was adopted, he clearly wasn't a national, and he seemed only mildly interested in the work.

"No one's tried to bully you, right?"

"Do you really think that would become a problem?"

"It might, for them."

Two years came and went in the blink of an eye. It seemed just yesterday Peony met a solemn thirteen year old and now he was expected to believe the sixteen year old directing the lab was the same person. Jade had let his cropped hair grow long, almost brushing his shoulders. He also started wearing glasses, claiming it helped with his headaches. Peony just told him to read less. And after he started going to school regularly, things seemed halfway normal. Their sparring matches were more even every day, Peony even suspected Jade was forcing himself to hold back. Though, looking at the bruises they scored on each other after practice said otherwise.

"How's weapon training at school?" Peony asked while they took a break, sitting down gingerly.

"Easy," Jade said, refastening his hair at the nape of his neck. "I learned something handy though," he said, demonstrating how he could rematerialize an an object by reconfiguring fonons to restore it to its original form- like a spear.

"That's quite a big weapon."

"Well, once you break down the particles, it takes surprisingly little space." Jade explained, watching as the particles appeared to dissolve into thin air, when in reality they were resting on the surface of his skin, thinner than the air itself.

"Well, keep it like that, or palace security will be upset," Peony said, impressed as always, with Jade's genius. He was truly remarkable. Still, he would probably always worry about him.

And Jade knew it. There were definitely points when Peony felt downright manipulated, but he went along with it. It was harmless. Of course, by the time, it was too late. All he had offered was water and then Jade was kissing him, calculating but determined, like the first time they ever sparred.

How did it come to this?

To Jade, it came as a logical conclusion mixed with the inevitable rush of hormones and growing up that gained momentum in the two years he spent in the palace. It wasn't something he was proud of, but not something he could deny. For all the semi-paternal attention Peony ended up lavishing on him- perhaps for lack of his own son, Jade never considered him a father figure. After all, he didn't even know what that was supposed to be. And with this act of defiance and desperation, he drew a very bold line. Predictably, he didn't expect Peony to cross it.

The emperor pulled away the second the shock passed, looking suitably scandalized for once. Serves him right, Jade thought, just a little bitterly.

"Jade. What was that-"

"You know what it was." he said, aloof and cold. The adrenaline was fading and the aching was settling again into his bones. It was a familiar pain, from going day to day to watch Peony from afar, or from up close, and never have his feelings acknowledged.

"You can't-"

"Why?"

"Because I'm-"

"The Emperor? Another man? An adult?"

"Well... Yes," Peony said, sighing in defeat. "Besides that, you are-"

"Not a child. I hope you never considered me one, because I can't do it. I can't be your son," _Not when I feel this way,_ he finished silently.

Peony kept his gaze steady on Jade, even if it pained him to do so. He felt that if he even blinked, Jade would disappear. "Jade. When you arrived here, you were young, but you were by no means a child. I didn't mean to give you the impression I wanted you to be a substitute for my son. Because I don't."

"Then-"

"But that doesn't mean this ever happened. Do I make myself clear?"

"Of course," Jade replied softly, leaving before any more could be said. It all went like he expected, but it didn't make it hurt any less. He had been so sure- yet at the same time, he couldn't resent Peony for it. He did what was expected of him, he was the one acting irrationally, pursuing a venture that was dead in the water.

He could only hope to be forgiven.

Peony watched him leave, take the familiar, private path back up to the palace. Only once he was out of sight, did he relax, realizing his hands were trembling. He should have seen the signs, the gazes that lingered and the protectiveness that did not necessarily come from patriotism. In his stupidity, he never considered distancing himself, creating things like _boundaries_ and _rules_ because he was just as swept up in the whirlwind of that beautiful, blossoming person he saved-

Sweet Lorelei, he was damned.

-  
Work. Research. Testing. Endless repeated cycles of testing. That was what Jade could do. The loop kept him from thinking of anything outside of it. Two weeks flew by without realizing he hadn't left the lab. If his assistant didn't leave food out of concern and pity, he might have collapsed. But he pushed through the exhaustion. Here was the only thing he could do well, and maybe in the end, someone will say he did well.

Although, whether it was the right thing to do was a completely different case.

He was being uncharacteristically cowardly. He should be going about his normal schedule, as to not cause any worry. Yet, he decided to hide here, in his research and his lab, where he couldn't be touched. Because he already reached out once, only to be pushed back out. Well, then he'll push that person out of his mind too.

Sitting down might be a really good idea at this point, he thought, vision blurring dangerously. Sitting down on the floor would be really convenient, all he would have to do is let his legs give and-

"You idiot."

Someone caught him, right before his knees hit the floor, hoisting him up like a rag doll.

"Are you trying to work yourself to death?"

"I live for my work," he said faintly, trying to wave him off while grasping for the edge of the table to support himself. He didn't need Peony to hold him up anymore. He'd done enough of that in the last three years.

"Well, I'm not going to let you die for it."

Jade scoffed. "Hardly. We're just in stage three of development and it's going to require a lot of..." he forgot what he was going to say. Rather, he just focused on the pleasant feeling of leaning against someone. Peony always smelled like a mix of clean clothes and ink and the air of the city.

"I'm sorry if I was harsh-"

"I'm not some delicate mountain flower. I understand."

"Then I hope you can forgive me."

"I forgive you," he murmured, dozing off.

"Thanks," Peony said with a smile, half carrying half dragging him to one of the sofas in the back. He was getting heavy. He remember telling him not to grow up so fast, but in the end, Jade had seen more than some adults by the time he arrived here. Absently brushing the strands of light brown hair from the sleeping boy's face, he left, switching off the light.

Those were peaceful months, in comparison to that chilly, wintry day a messenger arrived with the news the late Empress perished in an assassination attempt. There was no body.

The entire palace was silent. Peony was apparently refusing any company, but he had left the door unlocked. The grieving emperor sat at the edge of his bed, his face in his hands.

"Peony?"

"This isn't a good time-"

"I heard what happened."

"Like I said-"

"You couldn't have done anything."

"Please. I can't believe that right now. What use am I to this empire, if I can't even protect one person-"

"It's not your fault." Jade spoke plainly, trying to offset the guilt Peony was so determined to shoulder. But the guilt was crushing Peony. From the window he could see those eight white trees in the garden. From this angle, he finally noticed they were arranged with space for a ninth. Every day, Peony looked out his window to that ring of death.

Jade drew the curtains quickly, plunging them in darkness. Moving to sit beside Peony, gently, he put his arms around him. Surprised he could already reach around those broad shoulders, he drew his emperor, his friend, close. Peony did not draw away.

Those shoulders that had to bear the weight of an empire, began to shake with grief that Jade wasn't sure he could contain in the circle formed by his arms. But he tried, not just out of loyalty or unrequited affection, but also out of solidarity. Loss was loss. They stayed that way, until his shirt was soaked through with tears and Peony's breathing had slowed, and only then he noticed they were mutually entwined.

There was only a private funeral- they couldn't risk putting the city in panic and the security risk was too high to consider a public appearance. Instead, Jade helped Peony plant one more tree in the garden, silently digging up spadefuls of earth, until there was a grave large enough to plant the sapling.

When they finished, it had begun to drizzle, as the mist moved in from the sea, filling the streets with fog.

"Why isn't this damn fog lifting," Peony grumbled, staring out the window, unable to even see the garden from there.

"It's like this every year," Jade said, looking at Peony's untouched lunch. "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Don't be stupid."

"You're stupid." With that eloquent, if juvenile retort, he brushed by Jade, wanting to just get the hell out of here, but Jade caught his wrist, forcing them face to face. "Let go of me."

"No."

"What are you going to do to stop me-"

Apparently, pin him to the wall, that crimson gaze, fixating him past the reflection of his glasses. Maybe he was too tired to resist. Maybe that was his excuse for not turning away, when he opened his mouth to protest and Jade kissed him, for the second time in so many months. But unlike the first time, fueled by desperation and hormones, his mouth was gentle, more of a caress than a kiss.

Jade was trying to comfort him. Perhaps he was the only one who could. In that split second, he gave up and let Jade do so. He could worry about consequences later, after his life had been gutted, there was just an emptiness lurking. Leaning in to capture the smooth curve of his lips, he felt Jade tense in surprise- maybe he was caught just as off guard. But it was too late. There was nothing else in the world to him except the soft sensation of Jade's fingertips brushing his cheek, filling the starving, cold spot in his chest.

It was so easy. Maybe it was experience, maybe it was something darker that had always lingered in his heart, but he found so many of his qualms slipping away like dreams he no longer remembered. Call it a failure of maturity.

It was so easy. Maybe he was taking advantage of Peony, but he took advantage of everyone. People's cruelty, people's kindness... All he could do was take it all and twist it until he got what he wanted. It was selfishness, but he didn't know what else to do. Call it the folly of youth.

"I'm sorry-" he gasped, a bruise already darkening on the pale hollow of his throat.

"No you're not," Peony murmured, carefully removing Jade's glasses. His gaze betrayed no remorse, but no malice either. Neutral, just like the day they met.

"You're right."

Outside, the fog only thickened, enshrouding the floating imperial city.

The night sky was clear, and the air warm and sultry. He had woken with a start from a dream he couldn't remember. The small fonglobe that rested on his night stand cast it's usual comforting pool of light. Tonight, it illuminated the bare curve of the sleeping seventeen year old's shoulder, partially obscured by the past shoulder length hair. It was getting longer, Peony noticed, absently braiding it. Jade didn't stir, but he was already awake. He was a light sleeper, but good at pretending for Peony's sake.

"Are you awake, Jade?" he asked, as he always did when he woke up in the middle of the night.

"Yes," Jade replied softly, turning over on his side to address him.

"I'm sorry I woke you up."

"No, it's all right," he said, looking over at Peony, who looked more tired than normal. He hadn't been sleeping well, but he almost didn't sleep at all when he was alone. "Bad dreams?"

"I can't remember. Just... a bad feeling. That creeping, unnerving feeling that you're living on borrowed time, that you can't help but look over your shoulder and half expect something to be there, to lose it all-"

"Peony. I've felt that way for my entire life. Every day I dare the world to cast judgement for my actions. But you, you haven't done anything," he said, almost kindly, "Just learn to ignore it."

"How?"

"Distract yourself."

"Help me."

Jade smiled. This was, of course, all part of their unspoken agreement, but it was fine with him. They filled the emptiness, all the cracks and spaces, with this secret. The secret of fingertips brushing, sideways glances and stolen kisses, it filled the vast space to give them an ocean to float upon. There were waves, but he would never let him go under. If a kiss was all it took to keep his head above the water, then well, that was all it took.

-  
An hour. Peony had sat at his desk for an hour now, occasionally picking up a pen and then immediately putting it back down, as if he was afraid of the words he might write. But they had to be written. The words. Finally, he mustered the courage to start.

_Dear Lottie_

Even the way he wrote her name looked wrong. He resisted the urge to crumple it up and have it join the remains of a small tree under his desk, and powered through.

_I miss you terribly. Even if you weren't here, while you were alive, I missed you. And I miss the old you. Before all those things happened. But maybe you are happier, now that you are with them. I, however, am alone now._

He frowned, examining the words on the page like he was scrutinizing a portrait. It wasn't quite right, he was trying to write an apology letter...

_That's not quite right. I'm having an affair. Technically, not an affair, but there is a certain illicit nature to it that you would appreciate. Regardless, I want to apologize and let you know I'm not doing it out of disrespect for your memory..._

Putting it on paper made it sound rather bad, and he was starting to regret this idea. But he had to vocalize it, even if only on paper. So that one day, he would be held accountable.

_It's just that, I miss you terribly. And I need someone in this big empty palace to hold and love and I'm sorry it could not be you. Please do not think too badly of me. Someone told me, that would you have wanted me to be happy, but I have a sneaking suspicion you wouldn't mind some misery too. I love you for that. Please give my best to the children. Rest well._

_Always and Forever  
Your Peony_

He scanned it once, to make sure there weren't any grevious spelling errors, and slipped it in an envelope and sealed it before he could take it back out and tear it to shreds. Once he stuck it in the bottom of a drawer, he felt a little better. Well, he wasn't sure he was suppose to feel better about a torrid relationship with a seventeen year old, but he had predecessors who have done worse.

"I'm leaving now," Jade said, entering unannounced. "I still don't know why you are insisting I do. Are you tired of me?" he asked jokingly.

"It pains me more than you know," Peony replied loftily. They were almost at eye level now. Ruffling his hair affectionately, he privately admired the formal imperial uniform.

"Blue suits you."

"You always say that."

"It always suits you."

"Wasn't I suppose to be here to protect you?"

"You did protect me. But I am the empire. So, now you have to go protect the empire."

They had come to the agreement that Jade fulfill his obligatory six months of military service before he came of age, on the condition he officially be ranked in the imperial forces upon his return.

"You seem to have other ideas about what you want me to do," Jade said mischievously.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Peony murmured, unfastening those tricky buttons. "You better write, or I will feel terribly used."

"Who is using who here? Additionally, you can just read my reports."

"Ever the romantic."

"The landship leaves in an hour."

"Then you better step to it, soldier." he said with a wicked grin, disguising his anxiousness for one last memory, just in case there wouldn't be any more.

_Peony,_

_I hope you are not feeling cheap and/or used, because this is the first chance I got to sit down and compose a letter in a month. Needless to say, we are very busy containing border skirmishes. It doesn't help this landship navigates like that fat Count whose name I cannot remember. I hope I am assigned a more efficient landship on my next tour. We deserve it, since we have not suffered any casualties so far. Please believe all the rumors going on about me, they are all true. I hope you have not been assassinated. That would hamper my future somewhat, so I'd appreciate you staying alive._

_Loyally,_

_Jade_

_My dear Jade,_

_This is actually quite strange for me, I am not used to sending letters that are not official political correspondences. Even then, someone else writes them. Consider yourself lucky. But don't consider yourself a romantic war hero figure, that does not suit you at all. Especially since the latest rumor is that you are collecting corpses from the battlefield to use in experiments of dubious natures. I hope that is true, because they deserve it, those bastards. I hope you have not become a war casualty, because that would set back my plans. Please be safe._

_Royally,_

_Peony_

Jade smiled, even as a storm howled outside and the lights would flicker inside the cramped cabin, as he reread the letter he received a week ago. Even if tomorrow there would be nothing but more blood and corpses and terrified looks from everyone on this damn ship, he could still smile in the half darkness because the emperor was still alive.

-  
_Peony-  
I can't make this long. Tell me, no one has burned down the lab, right? I had a dream about that. Keeping very busy, I daresay we have them on the run. I have a nickname now, perhaps more like a title. They call me "Jade the Necromancer" ... at least when they think I'm out of earshot. I know you've been trying to think of a nickname for years, what do you think  
-J_

_-  
To my Necromancer-_

_No, I have to say that is a terrible epithet. I think you will agree with me when I say it will sound awkward being used in the throes of passion. I think. Also, the lab is fine, though I hesitate to say that they look more relaxed than usual. You'll have to come back and terrorize them soon.  
_

Jade made it a habit to keep these letters in the inner pocket of his jacket- he would die with this letters, if it came to it. And he very nearly did, when a land mine obliterated their engine and his entire company was stranded behind enemy lines.

The scout ship that went back to the palace only reported seeing the landship _Jue_ go up in flames.

-  
_I'm surprised I found paper, even as we camp, huddled in darkness and cold, waiting for just enough dawn to see where we're going, but not enough to be seen. I'm writing this letter, to you, Peony, because I will get back to deliver this. Even if we have all probably been declared dead, you will get this letter. Well, alternatively I suppose if it gets bad enough and I become a POW, I can at least hope this finds its way to you._

_To be completely honest, I don't intend to die here. But the others, the survivors, they all expect to. I have to thank you for forcing me to attend school because I think, without it, I would have no idea what to do with this squad of soldiers._

_I've got so much still to say-_

_-  
_Denial was the first stage of grieving, he had read. But, this wasn't denial. This was a conviction. Jade was alive and until someone brought him a body, he would continue to believe that. Yet in the darkest hours of the night. In a bed he had just gotten used to not sharing, it  
preyed upon him at night. Jade, dead in a ditch. Taken as a prisoner of war. Trapped, somewhere deep underground. The death of his late wife had hit out of nowhere, but this was something that had a high likelihood of happening. Only the dread only made it worse.

Once the sun rose and he could be excused from his bed, he reminded himself Jade was in this new day with him, and on his way back to the palace. In the meantime, he had to do everything he could as an emperor to protect his empire. But no sooner had the meeting started when a runner came in, announcing the 21st regiment, the only survivors of the landship _Jue_ had been picked up near the Rugnica plains and on its way back to the city.

It took a moment to register, before he asked- "Who is leading them?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Jade Curtiss."

The meeting was dismissed after that.

It was absolute mayhem. The moment they stepped into the city, the streets became flooded with people, everyone who wanted to get a glimpse of the soldiers who came back from the dead. They were escorted immediately to the palace, where Jade crossed the azure parquet he swore he would cross again.

Jade looked so tired, Peony observed, while having announcements made and arrangements for the other soldiers. There was only the barest curve of a smile, reassuring him. He noticed the other soldiers regarded Jade differently, with respect tempered with absolute terror. He would have to read the full statements later. For now, everyone was suppose to go home.

Barely having crossed the threshold to Peony's chambers, he found himself caught in an ambush, of Peony's alternating kisses and exclamations of relief. That he never doubted the fact he was alive. That he had been scared to death and sick with worry. That he loved him.

This was all worth coming back for, Jade thought, slipping into unconsciousness. He reassured Peony, he was all right, just very tired, and if he could stay beside him, that it would all be okay.

So, Peony did.

-  
"I know I've pledged my loyalty to you and the empire already, but in reality I fought off the Kimlascan forces single handedly for this bath," Jade remarked, emerging from the bathroom, having finally scrubbed off half a month's worth of battle grime and other unpleasant things.

"Are you sure you were okay with deferring the credit? You could be a national hero. You could wear medals," Peony offered, poking his bare chest.

"I'm sure. I have a lot of things to do now that I'm back, namely check on the lab-"

"But surely you can make time for me," Peony suggested coyly.

"I don't know, can I?" he replied teasingly,

"I order you to make time for me, Jade Curtiss," he said with mock pompousness.

Jade reached out, fingers twined in that beautiful blond hair, tugging ever so slightly.

"As you wish, your majesty."

Life was entirely too short, Peony finally decided, to feel guilty about this. Jade was an adult now. Well, physically, perhaps not technically since the coming of age was a couple years off. But he already had the scars of adulthood, inside and out.

"Where did this come from, mm?" He asked, mouth tracing the dark, ragged scar on Jade's sternum. He heard his breath hitch, closing his eyes as if he remember that very moment.

"We were ambushed our third night in Kimlascan territory-"

"I have a report I can read if I wanted to know exactly. I just wanted to inform you I think scars are very sexy."

"You're absolutely ridiculous," Jade replied, smiling whilst pulling the other closer and at the same time pulling his clothes off. He had missed him and even though at some point he had thought he could go through life distantly wanting, now that he _had_ it became a craving in his body. He couldn't help think to himself how perfectly they fit together and wonder how exactly Peony drew out increasingly indecent reactions from him.

Thankfully there was none of the tension from their initial trysts, when he was caught between loving Jade and hating himself for trespassing upon untreaded territory. Those long pale limbs had lost none of their grace in war, only marked with the scars of experience.

But Jade told him off soon enough, surprisingly eager to indulge in the company of his lord and lover. He had missed everything about him, from Peony's endless variations of concerned expressions, to the silence punctuated only by soft, quiet gasping.

-  
There was peace, for a few years after that. Tempered by the fearsome rumors of the immortal Necromancer who led the Malkuthian landships into danger and out unscathed, they maintained an uneasy truce so that, even briefly, people could go back to living.

And creating and engineering more terrible tools of war.

But death does not always come from outside the city walls. Sometimes it comes from the inside, abrupt and unannounced. What started as a mild, but persistent cough became constant headaches and a low burning fever. Jade cursed the seventh fonists who did nothing, he cursed the disease, and most of all he cursed himself.

"How are you feeling?" Jade asked softly, replacing the damp cloth on Peony's forehead. The emperor's gaze was glassy, but he managed a smile.

"You shouldn't be here so much, I don't want you to get sick-"

"They said I can't," Jade said, with a hint of bitterness. "How did we overlook this?"

"Malkuth's monarch's have always died young. We want to leave good looking corpses."

"You can't be that vain."

"I could-" his next words were cut off by a violent cough, wracking his entire wasted body. It was the symptoms of the miasma poisoning, except there was no miasma. Only blank stares and ineffective cures. It was not going to be an easy death either.

Clenching his palms, he waited until it passed, wordlessly handing him a glass of water. "Try to go to sleep-"

"Not tired. Plus, we have to plan your coming of age party," he said, the old spark of merriment lingering in those haunted eyes. "You've come such a long way... I hope I make it."

"You will," Jade said, squeezing his hand. "You have to." He was turning twenty and then he'd have to face the world alone. It was not a pleasant prospect.

"There's something I need you to do for me. I trust you," he said, drawing him close, whispering in his ear.

"I can't do that, Peony. I can't-"

"You will," Peony said firmly, leaning back on the pillows. "No one else can. Somehow, you'll find a way to bring him back. And then, you will help him lead this country to greatness."

"I was suppose to help you," Jade wanted to say, but he held his tongue. This was not the first time he had to stand by and watch the person he loved most die. But it was harder to do this time.

Three days later, was the eve of his twentieth birthday. Most newly marked adults go out, they carouse, they celebrate. He did none of that. When the clock struck midnight, he nudged Peony's arm, gently, to wake him.

"It's midnight."

"I know. Happy Birthday, Jade. I'm sorry there isn't a cake."

"I hate cake."

"I know. But you have to make a wish..."

"I'll figure something out."

"You know... even if my life was a long string of events that don't really make any sense in the end... I have surprisingly few regrets. Least of all you. Never forget that." It took all of the dying emperor's effort to raise his hand, just to brush against Jade's cheek, and draw him closer, kissing him for what would be the last time.

"I won't." Jade whispered, even as Peony's breathing slowed and his chest went still, marking the death of the eighth monarch of the empire.

On the nightstand, rested that fonglobe, which glowed tirelessly for so many days and years. Finally, it could rest, as Jade tapped it, once, extinguishing it's azure light. Then he curled up beside Peony, because he remembered that he hated to sleep alone.


	2. Chapter 2

There was literally no time to grieve. The next day Jade left the bed and was on a ferry up to the frozen spot on the planet known as Keterburg. His hometown. The hiding place of the crown prince. Soon to be emperor. Peony Upala IX. He sincerely hoped this would work like Peony said. He had forgotten how cold it really was in Keterburg, how it would seep into his bones and chill his heart. But numbness was good right now. It allowed him to carry on.

After some reorientation with the town, and a narrowly missed encounter with his old home, he found himself at a stately manor perched on the edge of town. He knocked, stamping his boots to shake off the snow. This was the first time he had seen snow since he left. Typically, a maid answered the door.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for... Franz?" He didn't know what surname they had designated him.

"May I ask who is calling?"

"Balfour." He was also suppose to in cognito, but he wasn't sure who would recognize his old family name... surely, she must be married by now...

"Please wait in the parlor. Master Franz will be down in a moment."

Clearly, 'Franz' wasn't suffering through life as a commoner. There were expensive rugs on the floor and the furniture was all imported antiques. He was surprised his cover wasn't blown already.

Footsteps, coming down quickly in the stairwell. He held his breath.

"Hey babe, are you ready to go... out-"

The resemblance was so close, it hurt. Jade maintained a neutral expression, even to the odd greeting.

"Sorry!" the secret prince exclaimed, turning slightly pink. "I know another Balfour... She's.. well, She's not you, but you two look exceedingly alike. Relatives?"

"No."

"Huh. Strange coincidence. Well, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to speak with you privately."

The young man relented, shutting the door to the parlor. "You don't look like you have good news."

"I don't," Jade said shortly, taking a deep breath. "My name is Jade. I know you're the crown prince." He chose his words carefully, trying to remember that to the rest of the world, they were only close as subject and ruler. "His Majesty passed away last night. I hope you understand what this means."

The royal across from him sighed, his expression telling him that he did indeed understand, but that the news was making him deeply unhappy about something.

"I have to assume responsibility? Damn my old man..." he murmured, running his hands anxiously through his hair. He was indisputably his father's son, at least in appearance. The broad shoulders, clear and kind eyes, his expression framed by blond hair that shone in the firelight. It was eerie. The attraction lingered, painfully in Jade's chest, and he had to stamp it out viciously, to focus on his job.

"He couldn't have stuck it out a little longer..."

"It wasn't something he could control... Regardless, you need to come with me."

"Right now?" he sounded alarmed.

"Is there any reason why you can't?"

The prince glared at him, shocked at his insensitivity. Well, he'll have to excuse him for being a little awkward with the task of bringing back the secret prince to lead his empire. This wasn't his normal field of work. But it was one of Peony's last wishes...

"Of course. I have a life here you know. Friends... people who are important to me..."

"Do they know your identity?"

His expression told Jade that one of them did. He shook his head, wondering how this prince, barely come of age, managed to survive this long.

"Meet me at the port tonight, after you've taken care of your affairs. Don't tell anyone where you're going."

"I can't do that!" he exclaimed, indignant. "She'll worry-"

"Then tell her," Jade snapped, rising to leave. "I just hope she's never tortured for what she knows about you." he said, turning on his heel to leave. Outside, the freezing air filled his lungs again, chilling him from the inside. That was... well, disastrous. He felt like sticking his head in a snowbank. Since when did he get riled up over something so trivial? It shouldn't matter to him. He just needed to bring the crown prince to Grand Chokmah, where he'll be coronated and named the ninth emperor and Jade could sit down somewhere and disappear.

It was too soon. He understood the empire's need for a monarch, but was this really the best solution? The son who had just come of age, but absent from politics for all his life? He supposed, that's why Peony charged him with bringing him back and help stabilize the throne. Honestly, he just wanted to go back to the lab and never come back out. Briefly, he remembered the progress they were making with organic fomicry. It was a terrible thought he banished quickly from his mind. He had learned his lesson the first time.

And now that Peony was dead, did he have to continue this project alone?

The sun was already setting behind the cruel peaks of Mount Roneal and Jade was becoming slightly anxious. The path was safe during the day, but at night few travelled outside the safety of the town walls. He had expected the prince to be here already, but now that he wasn't...

Jade broke out into a run, cursing himself for not accompanying the prince in the first place. How stupid was he, how blinded by selfish grief that he overlooked something so simple. He was sent to bring a prince back, not a corpse.

He saw Peony first, the fading rays of light catching his blond hair. Then, the dark shapes that had emerged from the woods and the glow of their red eyes, encircling the prince, who was to be their dinner, if they had their way. The weres that inhabited these mountains were world renown for their cruelty.

Well, so was he.

"Get down!" he shouted, skidding down a snow bank, spear already materialized in one hand. The weres changed their target, sensing a predator, not just prey. They leapt. Jade was ready. The tip of his spear scored a bloody arc across the side of the first, splattering the snow with dark, warm blood. He stunned half the pack with an arte, but they were charging in a continuous sequence, preventing him from taking them out collectively. The second a were had completely impaled itself upon his spear, rendering it useless, another charged, not at him, but at the crown prince, who backed up too quickly and tripped. It would be a matter of seconds before he had this throat ripped out.

Never drop your weapon, was one of the first things Peony taught him, but he abandoned the spear nontheless, intercepting the monster mere meters before it would have reached the prince. He gritted his teeth, those deadly jaws clamped around his arm. With his free hand, he drew the knife at his belt and gutted the were in a clean, upward stroke. With two sets of dead weight, he had little choice. The remainder of the pack was getting up again to charge.

"Close your eyes."

"What?"

"Just do it!" he commanded harshly, calling upon that rush of power that filled with veins and crackled on the surface of his skin, before the clearing was filled with light, and a wave of heat that seemed to have been summoned from the depths of the earth.

Cautiously, the prince opened his eyes, only to be greeted with a scene of absolute destruction. He looked over to Jade, who was prying the dead monster's teeth out of his arm. It made a sickening noise as he managed to get it off, though now the blood was flowly freely from the multiple puncture wounds.

"A-are you going to be allright?" he asked, stumbling over his words.

"We have to hurry back-" Jade insisted, hastily wrapping his arm in his jacket.

"Shouldn't you heal that first?"

"I'm not a seventh fonist."

"You're..."

"We have to hurry," Jade repeated himself, grabbing the prince by the wrist and forcing him to walk. At the ferry he could get his arm treated. But right now, he wasn't going to risk another fight. They barely made it back to the port, before the gates were closed for the night. Jade didn't seem to care he looked like he walked out of a massacre, leading them straight to the dock. "Get on." he said shortly, finally releasing his arm. There was a rust red ring of blood around his wrist.

"Where are you going?"

"To take a bath."

"I want to apologize," Jade said, without much remorse, when he returned to the ferry, in a change of clothes. His arm looked like he had bandaged it himself, which he did. "I think we got off on the wrong foot."

"You saved my life."

"I endangered it, through my carelessness."

"Is your arm okay?

"Once we get to Grand Chokmah, I can see a seventh fonist. Until then, it'll be fine.

"You could have died."

"Hardly," Jade said. He had been in worse situations. But the crown prince had a point- he would have died, right then and there, to ensure his survival. In that split second he saw the were go for him, he didn't see Peony's son, he saw Peony. The man he couldn't save. So naturally, he wouldn't let it end the same this time.

"Thank you, all the same," The crown prince said, eyeing the stranger who had suddenly appeared to uproot him from his life with curiousity. He had been told his entire life, that this day would come, but he never quite believed it. Maybe, if he had, he wouldn't have fallen in love. Maybe he wouldn't have had to say goodbye so abruptly. Maybe he wouldn't have had to make her cry, for the first time. It just wasn't fair. "Tell me about yourself."

It wasn't fair, how similar they looked. Jade knew the prince hadn't seen his father for his entire life, but it was eerie how coincidentally they shared many of the same quirks. Right down to the way he addressed him. What was there to say about himself? What could he possibly tell him.

"What do you want to know?"

"How old are you?"

"Twenty."

"Huh, same as me. Why did they send you?"

"The Emperor told me to."

"How did he..." Clearly, the prince was having trouble getting the answers he really wanted. He just didn't know how to politely ask how the father he never knew had died.

"Natural causes."

"I see. Were you... there?"

"Yes."

"You must be pretty important."

"Not really. I'm the head of a lab." This conversation was tiring him. But he couldn't let his voice betray how he felt, no matter what.

"What is the lab for?"

"Fomicry."

There was instant recognition in those blue eyes. So he wasn't completely ignorant of the world.

"Isn't that banned by the Order?"

"It is. Our work is secret, to both the Order and Kimlasca. The late emperor understood how dangerous the technology was, but believed it was better to have it in our hands, rather than be influenced by another nation."

"That's smart. Can you tell me about him?"

Was this the right thing to do? He knew so much about the late emperor- and just as much about Peony himself. But what could he say, to the newly orphaned prince?

"He was a good man," Jade started, slowly. "Everyone thought so. His empire came first. He was charismatic."

"I see... Score, I'm so sorry," the prince blurted out apologetically. "You're already injured and I'm interrogating you over things people will tell me over and over again later... I'll get out of your way-"

"It's not a big deal," Jade said, not quite sure whether he wanted the crown prince's company or not. But it wouldn't do to have the prince feel indebted to him. This was his life. Even as he thought that, he was drifting, to the quiet blankness of sleep. The last thing he was before he fell asleep, was Peony's face, looking down at him with that familiar worried expression.

The morning the crown prince stepped into the gates of the city, he was whisked away by aides and advisers, caught up with the machinery of planting a new monarch at the head of the government. Jade missed most of this, sitting in the infirmary at the military base while his arm mended. The faint scars would remain.

That very afternoon was the funeral. The coronation would take place at night. It was a horrible affair that Jade had no intention of attending. First, he paid a visit to the ring of dogwood trees in the garden. They were in full bloom, scattering showers of white petals with every strong breeze. He remembered, years ago, when Peony told him he wasn't sure if the eighth three was for himself, or his son. Well, they all had their answers now.

Jade wasn't a religious man nor was he an optimist, but he could still hope, that the royal family was at rest.

That evening, everyone had cast off their funerary garments and changed, in preparation for the coronation. It was a seamless production, burying the dead emperor and then immediately crowning the next one, to ensure political stability. Perhaps a little spitefully, Jade wanted to see the newly crowned emperor stumble, maybe just a little, under public pressure, but he seemed to have inherited the same charm and knack for crowds from his father. It was disconcerting... but quite foolish of him to feel that way.

The ceremony took quite a while, plenty of speeches, blessings, toasts, and then finally, people were allowed to move on their own, flit from circle to circle and congratulate each other on what a beautiful emperor and/or empire they had. The newly crowned emperor was swarmed by a crowd, only identifiable from the sparkling blue jewel twined in his hair. Like he did so many years ago, Jade slipped out to the side terrace as soon as he made obligatory introductions. To his surprise, it was already occupied by someone unexpected.

"Your majesty," Jade greeted politely, addressing him with his title for the first time. No longer 'crown prince', he was 'the emperor'.

"I was waiting for you."

"How did you know I would be here?"

"Intuition."

Jade shrugged, leaning against the marble rail. "Is there something you wanted me for?"

"You weren't at the funeral." The young emperor's words were blunt and concise, contrasted with the flowery words of politics and gain.

"How do you know?"

"I asked for you."

"Why would you do that?" It was an honest question. Jade considered Peony's last wishes fulfilled, having brought back his son and saw him instated as the new emperor. That meant he was finally released from having to stay in the palace any longer.

"Because I think I need you."

"You 'think', your majesty?" This was not going the way Jade had planned. Originally, at this point, the young emperor would have forgotten about him, surrounded himself with a cabinet of experienced advisers and counsels, and run the empire. These words were the absolutely last he wanted to hear.

"I've been asking around. About you. 'Jade the Necromancer', was it?"

Jade smiled wryly. "Military injoke."

"You're involved in a lot more than just that. I'm going to be honest- I have no idea what I'm doing, Jade. I was trained to run an empire, but in practice... it's not as easy."

That much was to be expected. "That's why there's the cabinet, your majesty."

"Can I trust them?"

"Can you trust me?"

"I do."

Those words were a little startling. "We barely know each other."

"You risked your life for me, back in Keterburg."

"Anyone in the service of the empire would have, your majesty."

"But you _did_."

Jade remained silent at that fact. His arm was mended, but he still bore the marks, maybe as a reminder. He could hardly come right out and say the only reason he had done so was because of Peony, but it was the truth. He who couldn't save the dying emperor needed to save _something_ of his, even at the cost of his own life. So maybe his son was right. But it didn't make it any less unappealing.

"I'm still not sure what you want from me, your majesty."

"Be for me, what you were for my father."

Jade was grateful for the cover of darkness, because that particular way of phrasing it made him flush unwillingly. Obviously, the young emperor had no idea, exactly what he was to his predecessor and he would greatly like to keep it that way.

"And exactly what as I?"

"I'm not completely ignorant. People talk, especially at events like these," he said with a self satisfied smirk. "You were always there, for him. You appeared out of the blue one day, seven years ago, and ever since you were either at the front lines or at the right hand of the emperor. I'm also deeply interested in your background, but no one seems to know a thing about that."

"I'm not fond of gossip."

"Your file is also sealed."

"Do you want to know about me that badly?"

He nodded, holding that crimson gaze.

"Then follow me, your majesty."

They slipped out of the reception, walking past the military base, into the unmarked building beside it.

"Where are we?"

"The lab I've been working in for seven years to perfect human fomicry," Jade said, looking over the empty testing rooms, the inactive machinery that filled the air with a dead silence.

"Fomicry was banned by the Order years ago." There was the familiar expression of horror in the young emperor's eyes- just like everyone who learned of the act that seemingly desecrated the laws of nature.

"But you can bet that Kimlasca is researching it all the same. The Order too. And of course, Malkuth. However, according to the last reports I received, we were the furthest ahead.

"'Were'?"

"The lab was disbanded as of your father's death."

"By who's order?"

"Mine." Jade had no other choice. It was too tempting, too blatant to keep going forward. He wasn't exactly sure what he would have done, if they finally accomplished what they set out to do, and he was standing at the crossroads, with Peony's fonic frequency in one hand and the blood from his past in the other. So, he thought it would be better to give the order to disband and have all their work destroyed.

"What a waste..."

"This was my value to the late emperor," Jade lied. "I took up some other roles, just because I could, but there you have it. Still want to keep me around?"

"Yes. Because you're lying and it's painfully obvious. You were even there when he died, so don't try to tell me 'this is it'. But this is the last time I'll ask. Will you stand by the throne again?"

The words cut to the core, because he had been seen through so easily- that doesn't happen often to him. And the worst part was, he was right. For the most part. It was too much to ask to make him move on, but at the very least he could protect Peony's legacy a little longer. Just until he wasn't needed anymore.

Jade nodded. "I will, your majesty."

"Then we can dispense of that damn title. I'm really not used to it."

"What should I address you as then?"

"Peony is fine."

"All right... Peony." It was wrong, all completely wrong. As much resemblance Peony bore to his father, it didn't sit well with him. But in the end, he didn't really have a choice. Chastising himself mentally for being so damn useless, he led Peony back to the party, locking away his last link with the former emperor.

-  
"What, in all of Auldrant, is that?"

"He has a name, you insensitive monster."

"This is a palace, Peony, not a barnyard." Jade stared odiously at the peachy pink round _thing _with _spots _and the audacity to have _ears_. It tracked in mud too.

"They were going to kill him!"

"Yes, that's what happens at the butchers." It was quite pathetic, the young emperor's expression. Growing up in Keterburg meant that their main protein industry was a rather unpleasant winter root and fish, so Peony had never seen a live rappig until he decided to go traipsing in the city market for _fun_. "And I'm going to send it back."

"No! Absolutely not! You are not sending my cute Jade to go die," Peony announce adamantly, clinging to the snuffling and decidedly confused animal.

"Excuse me, but what did you name it?" Jade's perfect neutral expression was going sour.

"Cute Jade. I saw it just standing there, absolutely stock still, it reminded me of you."

"But really, cute?"

"I have to distinguish the two of you somehow!"

That earned Peony a boxed ear.

"O-owww- it's illegal to lay a hand upon a royal-"

"Not when it's for the good of the nation. Please do not take more actions to make yourself appear mentally unstable. It's bad for national morale." Although Jade had to admit, Peony was not doing too badly for himself. He didn't know when his father took the throne, or how he dealt with the transition of power, but Peony seemed to be charting his own course with few disastrous results. The adoption of a farm animal will certainly be one of them.

"I'm not sending him back. That is final."

Jade sighed, as he was prone to do lately. He heard the first hundred days were the hardest, but they were gone in a blink of an eye. Kimlasca, while formally sending their regrets about the late emperor, were mobilizing forces in case they could take out Malkuth while it was still weak. Well, after a month maintaining the front lines and rebuffing their military efforts, hopefully they won't make that mistake again.

They were getting used to each other as well, somewhat. There were moments of tension- it didn't help that they were the same age yet Peony ranked so much higher than him, but Jade had been in the city for much longer. Luckily, it never came to blows. But that did give him an idea.

-  
"Do you spar?" Jade asked casually one day, after chasing out that wretched animal from his office for the millionth time it felt.

"Of course. Why, looking to get even?" Peony asked with a smirk, lovingly brushing his pet.

"Just making sure you can defend yourself. Care to go a round? Unless you're afraid of ruining your good looks."

"You think I look good? I'm flattered. And I accept," Peony said, confident enough to let it show. Well, confident or stupid enough.

It felt too familiar, standing in the grassy edge of the far gardens, facing a ghost or a miracle. Peony had a good stance, much better than the slightly better than feral style of fighting Jade had entered the palace with. And they were about evenly matched in reach and height, so it was going to be interesting, to say the least.

Hours later, exhausted and bruised, they called a temporary truce. True, Jade had pinned Peony most of the time, even as he had to hold back less and less as Peony got smarter about his offense, resulting in him landing a few significant hits on him.

"You had a good teacher," Jade said in a half compliment to the emperor.

"So did you. Who taught you to fight like that?"

"I've had several excellent teachers in life. Ready to go back in or do you want to go another round?"

Peony shook his head, wincing as he stood up. "I'll have to pass. Not that I'm admitting defeat or anything- I'm just waiting so I can pay you back with interest."

"If it's anything like our national debt, I should be prepared for the worst."

"Ha ha, very funny, except we got the budget sorted out weeks ago."

That was a hell week, since there was really nothing more Jade hated in life than paperwork. And conveniently, Peony decided that he absolutely could not sign off on anything until Jade had proof read it and consulted the appropriate experts. Who all refused to agree. Which made for a very frustrating week.

But the sparring match helped to iron out some of those wrinkles, the soreness was something tangible he could focus on and he could almost, for a moment, forget who Peony was and just consider him a friend, if he could say even that much. Peony tended to oscillate between antagonizing him deliberately (for his own amusement, Jade was beginning to suspect) and adopting a manner towards him that was too close for comfort (meaning he acted almost exactly like his father).

"Do you miss her?" Jade asked over dinner. There was a striking difference between father in son, in the way they enjoyed their evenings. Peony loved parties, he loved drinking at parties, and even when there wasn't a party, there was always a bottle of wine at dinner. Jade just chalked it up to the exuberance of youth and made sure he didn't get sick over anything valuable. But it did lead to some interesting late night conversations.

"Who are you talking about?" Peony said a little too loudly, his face a little too flushed.

"That person you had to say good bye to, when I first came to get you from Keterburg. I only assume it was a woman."

"Well, it could have been a man," Peony quipped up cheerfully, missing the point entirely. "She was the One. Y'know?"

"No, I don't really," Jade said mildly. "Were you engaged?"

"Not... entirely. But probably! She would have said yes. If I had asked her," Peony said, regret tinging his voice. "She was beautiful. This gorgeous, chestnut brown hair that shone, lovely eyes, sharp as a knife... Y'know... you bear a striking resemblance to her. You sure you aren't related? Even distantly?"

"I can't imagine how that could be," Jade said, because it would be too crazy, too out there if it really was-

"Nephry. Nephry Balfour, you ever heard of her?"

Well, fuck.

Jade bought a few precious seconds while having a coughing fit. "Wrong pipe," he gasped, though Peony didn't really seem to care.

"Of course you couldn't be related, she is really the sweetest, kindest, amazingest person I know and you are... well..."

"I'm what?" Jade asked, a little miffed to be so undervalued next to his sister, but then he remembered she thought he was dead, for all intents and purposes.

"You're different."

"Well obviously."

"I mean, different from... people. In general. Sometimes I wonder, are you human?" Peony inquired, not being spiteful, but perhaps spitefully honest.

"What do you think?"

"Well, what else could you be? Don't think I didn't think about it either. You could be an alien. Or mad."

"Well, a little madness never hurt anyone."

"I think it's the way you look at people. Sort of cold, calculating, like you're staring down from somewhere impossibly far away."

Jade had to disagree on a minor point, he would hardly be looking down, seeing how far he's fallen. But he let the emperor rant on.

"It unnerves people, you know. Of course it didn't unnerve me, because I saw right through you," Peony said, sounding exceedingly smug for someone who probably couldn't walk all the way back to his own room.

"Really? And what did you see?"

"That's a secret," Peony slurred, as Jade got up to help him not break his neck and bring the Malkuth line to a very embarrassing and untimely end. "But I'll give you a hint," he said, leaning to whisper in his ear, despite there being no one around to eavesdrop.

"... Is that so, your majesty?"

"I thought I told you not to use the damn title-" Peony said, moving far too quickly and knocking both of them off balance. Luckily (and unluckily, for Jade) they landed in a tangled mess on the emperor's bed.

"Sorry, Peony," Jade said softly, the emperor already fast asleep, pinning Jade down with his dead weight. "Though, if I didn't know better, I'd think you're doing this on purpose," he said with a wry smile, gently rolling the sleeping monarch off of him. After drawing the covers over him, he turned out the lights, and left.

"Where did you get that?" Jade asked casually, pointing to the familiar fonglobe sitting on Peony's desk.

"Oh, do you like it? I found it among my father's old things...I'm still going through it all."

"I see," Jade said, resisting the urge to take it back. He hadn't gone inside the old bedroom or the office since the late emperor died, choosing to forget their existence. However, Peony seemed insistent on breaking open all those doors, rifling through the life of a father he'd never known. Now that some semblance of peace has been established, they could take their time, exploring the little things in life. "It's very beautiful."

"I think so too."

"So, what did you call me in here for?"

"I want you to meet someone. It took way too much bargaining to even get her here but... I want you to be here, to meet her."

"Who?"

"The future empress," Peony said, and at that exact moment his guest entered and all hell broke loose.

"Jade?" Nephy exclaimed, eyes wide in shock. "H-how..."

"Nephry, it appears that we have some explaining to do."

Peony just looked absolutely bewildered at her distress. "Do you know eachother...?" he ventured cautiously.

"Know each other? Franz, this is my _brother."_

Peony paled, glancing back from Nephry to Jade. Side by side, it was undeniable. It had just seemed too farfetched to assume from the start. "But you told me he died when you two were young."

"That's what I thought too,"

Jade took a deep breath, foreseeing a very long day. "Well, as you can both see, I am in perfect health so, if you would care to move to the parlor, maybe we can sit down over tea and talk about this.

"I think it would be a good idea for Jade to start by explaining why his sister didn't even know he was alive." Peony said in a voice that didn't make it a suggestion.

"You have to understand Nephry, that I couldn't contact you. I'm not suppose to be alive and for all intents and purposes, Jade Balfour is dead. I was sentenced to death, as you can imagine, for what happened seven years ago in Keterburg. However, the late emperor pardoned me in exchange for my services. Then I was adopted into the Curtiss family and became Jade Curtiss."

Nephry nodded, hands just barely trembling as she put her tea cup back down. "I see."

"How have you been doing?"

"After you disappeared... I was taken in by the Viscount's family."

"Congratulations," Jade said coolly, betraying none of the awkwardness of seeing his baby sister now a woman, proud, educated, and strong. Of course, they were family. But she inherited none of his capacity for terror, none of his need to push ethical boundaries for his own gain. She was a good person and well suited for Peony. That 'future empress' business was on shaky ground though, considering she was not wearing the expression to deliver good news.

"Well, that's my explanation. You didn't come to Grand Chokmah for me, Nephry, so I'll leave you two... Please understand Nephry that no one should know about my past."

"So... what exactly has he done?" Peony asked Nephry after her brother had left. She shook her head, unwilling to relive the horror from their childhood. She would never forget the day she had so foolishly gone to her brother after breaking her doll. She didn't think much of when he handed it to her, seemingly 'healed' ... While Jade threw the original out. All she remembered was the cold, impassive gaze when she insisted it wasn't the same... He saw no difference in replicas and originals, he saw objects and humans as interchangeable without any value to him. And while he was greatly changed now, she couldn't bring herself to expose that bloody past to Peony.

"You'll have to get him to tell you himself. It's not my right... We aren't even really family at this point," she said softly.

"It's never too late," Peony said hopefully, not simply referring to her estranged relationship with her brother. "I asked you to come here Nephry, because I-"

"I know, Peony. You said so much in your letter. But I agreed to come here because..."

-  
"Peony, of all the things to drink yourself to death to, a woman is not one of them," Jade said sternly, firmly remove the drink from Peony's hand, before he dropped it and ruined the carpet. And his health.

"But she was the one you know," he mumbled, gaze unfocused. He had taken the news graciously, with humility and reassurances that he only wanted to her be happy. No, of course it wasn't a big deal to have his heart forcibly removed from his chest and then broken into several thousand pieces. Of course not.

"There is not such thing as 'the one'," Jade reminded him lightly, half carrying and half dragging him to his bedroom.

"Yes there is, you miserable cynic," Peony hiccuped, almost causing them to crash into a very expensive vase. Jade made a mental note to childproof and idiotproof the room. "She was the one and now she's going to be marrying someone else and there's _nothing I can do about it_,"

"This is why I was never fond of the Score," Jade remarked, "Limits your view of the future."

"What future," Peony moaned, looking distinctly ill. Jade revised their route to the bed towards the bathroom. "I don't want a future without her."

"Now you're just being ridiculous," Jade said, though he understood. Peony put on that gracious, royal face every day for the world, and this might be his only chance to pine before having to snap back into it. "Plus, did you ever consult the Score about her?"

"Yes."

"And what did it say?"

"That to be with me, would bring only sorrow," Peony said bitterly, fists clenched.

"Does she know this?"

"No."

"Do you believe it?"

"Of course not, that's why I asked her to marry me, you ass!" Peony shouted, shoving Jade away abruptly. Of course that just ended with him flat on his rear in the bathroom.

"I'm sorry to hear that then."

"I never stood a chance," Peony admitted, staring mournfully at the ceiling. "Even though she was younger, she was always miles ahead of me. But I tried. She was the only person who knew about my identity. She didn't care. She still turned me down," he said with a sardonic smile. "Why did I chase her for so long? Tell me, Jade."

"I don't know anything about Nephry anymore," he replied mildly.

"I didn't really want this responsibility, but to see her pursue her goals with such an intense focus- you two share that, I can see it now. It was humbling in a way and I suppose it better prepared me for when you came to get me. She actually chastised me, the night I went to say good bye to her, with all those flowery words and promises. She said, "Franz you idiot, go do your job!" ...I'm the emperor of Malkuth and she is still out of my league." Peony was rambling now and as soon as Jade ascertained he would not be sick, he helped him back to bed.

"I guess I'll just have to settle."

"Settle for what?"

"Celibacy?"

"I don't think that really suits you," Jade said, finally making it to their destination.

"You're right. Come here," Peony said, motioning for him to lean down. Jade complied without a second thought, eyes widening in surprise as Peony yanked him down further by pulling his hair before kissing him clumsily.

"What was that for?" Jade asked quietly once Peony released him.

"I told you, I have to settle."

"That's a little twisted, I hope you know."

"I know."

"Good night."

"Good night, Jade."

-  
"I know I'm a poor substitute, but Peony isn't really in a condition to see you off- not to worry though, he just ate something off last night," Jade said reassuringly, though that was the last thing Nephry felt after opening the door to see her brother.

"You know I can get on a ferry by myself, right?"

"Of course, you already know I didn't come here just for that."

Nephry sighed, hefting her bag. "We'll talk at the wharf."

It was a beautiful, clear day with the clean white sails dotting the ocean around them. Without Peony as an ever distracting force, he focused on the sister he had left behind seven years ago and practically forgotten about. It's not that he didn't care, it was more... a remoteness, that lingered even from his childhood. But at the very least, she didn't deny what he was.

"So, I suppose you want to know all the sordid details?"

"Not particularly," Jade admitted.

"I didn't think so either. After you left and I was taken in by the Viscount, I just focused on getting things done. I didn't even know Franz- Sorry, Peony even existed until he started showing up at the Viscount's manor to discuss things like politics and world news, except by that point the Viscount was in a pretty rough state due to age... so most of those discussions were with me."

"I can imagine how things progressed form there, knowing Peony."

"He was very insistent, though always polite about it. 'I have all the time in the world' he would tell me. Then, he came to me one night and said his father was dead and he was leaving for Grand Chokmah. He promised me a future together, but he didn't wait for my answer. I kept trying to find a good time to tell him, but as you can imagine, it's not easy corresponding with the emperor.

Jade nodded with a semblance of sympathy. "Well, is he a good man?"

Nephry gave him a second of bewildered, before recovering. Of course he would know about her fiance by now. She nodded, and that was all Jade needed. "Don't mind Peony then. It's his own damn fault for just running about expecting things to work out,"

"You seem pretty familiar with him."

"Comes from prolonged exposure."

She smiled and for a moment, Jade regretted not being much of a brother while he had been at home. Not that she needed him, or that his presence would have been a positive thing, but that perhaps in another life, the three of them could have just all been friends.

The ferry horn called it's passengers to the deck, and after shaking hands with Nephry, he watched her leave the city to sail back home.

To his relief, Peony was sober and awake by the time he got back to the palace. Unfortunately, he was completely and utterly unrepentant.

"You look like you want something from me, Jade."

"An apology would be nice," Jade suggested, half sarcastic and half serious, remember the occurrences last night.

"I didn't throw up on anything," Peony said, a little miffed.

"No, for the other thing."

"I'm not going to apologize for kissing you, Jade," Peony said, even as he turned away to look very interested in a certain document. "I don't regret it."

"You should."

"Why?" Peony asked, "Frankly, I don't think you want an apology."

"You think you know what I want?" It was almost laughable. They had met, for the first time, a little over a year ago. And Peony thought he knew Jade this well.

"Maybe."

"I'll save you the trouble. I don't want it to happen again."

"Liar," Peony murmured, but Jade had already left.

"Is that dinner?" Jade remarked to Peony's horrified expression. Well, it was better than being upset there was yet another rappig in the palace, only months after the incident with his sister.

"No, her name is Nephry," Peony said, cooing in a mildly disturbing fashion at the placid creature who stared at him with a slight air of superiority.

"That's not disturbing at all."

"Well, I told you I had to settle, didn't I? So, one Nephry is better than no Nephry. Isn't that right, my cute Jade? You and your sister can hang out now and not have a completely awkward estranged relationship where one of you was assumed dead for nearly ten years!"

Peony was really asking for it today.

"Yes well, don't be surprised about the menu tomorrow," Jade said offhandedly, turning around to leave. Of course, Peony anticipated this, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to turn around, at the same time pinning him against the wall.

"Excuse me, your majesty, but what are you doing?"

"Don't play coy. And don't call me that," Peony said sharply. While Jade bore a resemblance to his sister, the attraction was of a completely different nature. There was almost an antagonistic edge to it, because Jade was just so good at keeping that sarcastic smile on his face, he wanted nothing more than to take it apart. He wanted what was inside, lurking just beneath that merciless red gaze.

"Please refrain from sexual harassment in the workplace, _Peony_," he said coolly, though in reality, it was almost too unfair, too cruel a situation to be in. There weren't words to describe the ache in his chest that started the day he left to meet Peony and the very moment he was standing impossibly close to him, arrogant and completely full of himself, but still so very much his father's son.

"This is so twisted," he murmured, right before kissing Peony, and he wasn't referring to Nephry at all.

Peony didn't realize how he had tensed up, until he finally relaxed against Jade, slowly savoring each second of that kiss, which only left him needing more.

"We shouldn't-"

"Too late," Peony cut him off, lips grazing the other's throat.

Jade shifted his weight, catching Peony off guard so that he had the emperor's back to the wall instead. "Well, if it's too late for both of us, then allow me," he suggested, hands already on Peony's belt. Peony allowed him.

This was so completely and impossibly twisted.

-  
He was standing again in that house, the only place he had ever felt at home in his thirteen years in the world. He was going to seize a power he had no right to hold. Jade was going to lose everything at that moment.

The seventh fonon was power, power he managed to halfway summon, but had no way to control. It was volatile and ready to tear him to pieces. A false move and he would have died instantly. Luckily, right at that moment his teacher, Gelda Nebilim returned, instantly seeing the danger he had so foolishly put himself in. He tried to tell her to stay back, he tried to warn her, but it was already too late.

Nebilim grabbed his hand, channeling the fonons through her own body. But by that time, they weren't the relatively harmless seventh fonons she could control with a blink of an eye, but something twisted and corrupt, besmirched by hands that should not have held it in the first place. It killed her instantly.

The next minutes were a blur of fire and blood. The force of diffusing such a huge quantity of corrupted fonons left her house ablaze. With the help of Saphir, crying and sniffling, they carried their teacher's body out into the snow. Smoke was piling into the night sky as the ground around Nebilim became soaked with blood. Harshly, he commanded Saphir to run to town and get help to put out the fire.

That was just an excuse. As soon as he left, Jade drew a glyph in the snow, more complex and terrible than the simple one that could replicate toys or trinkets. This was a glyph defying the very basis of nature and flew in the face of logic, reason, and humanity.

In the dream- rather, nightmare, Jade was willing himself to stop, to at least consider the repercussions in this instance. To consider maybe, he wasn't capable of everything. That for once, he screwed up and he should just let it go.

But he never does. He activates the glyph and there's light, pain, and finally, waking up.

It's still dark, thankfully, and he's alone. It takes several minutes to stop his heart from racing, to stop gasping for air like he was drowning. The room was too hot in the dead heat of summer, so he abandoned it in favor of the garden in the nighttime. He found the eighth tree, next to the ninth he helped plant himself. Privately, he regarded this as the former emperor's grave.

"I haven't had that nightmare in a long time," he said softly, laying in the soft earth, staring up through the branches against the night sky. The air was sweet and surprisingly cool under the shadow of the trees. "I hope you've been doing well-"

"Do you have a habit of conversing with arboreal beings?"

Jade sat up with a start, so far lost in thought that he didn't even notice Peony approaching him.

"Your majes- Peony," he corrected himself, "What are you doing out here at this time of night?"

"The same reason as you, probably."

Hardly, Jade thought, but he kept it to himself.

"It's too hot here," Peony complained, taking a seat beside Jade, leaning against the trunk of the dogwood tree.

"Do you miss Keterburg?" Jade asked, though Peony was technically from Grand Chokmah and Jade was from the freezing north, he was much more comfortable with the near tropical temperatures in the summer. Peony; however, was not.

"A little. It's very beautiful there."

"I know."

"I always forget you grew up there," Peony said, looking up at the distant glittery mass of the fonbelt in the sky. "We might have even seen each other."

"Maybe. I doubt it though. We were in very separate social classes."

"Funny how things ended up, isn't it?"

"Yes, hilarious," Jade murmured.

"So, what exactly happened? Twelve years ago..."

Had it really been that long? Twenty five and still plagued by nightmares from the past. It was pathetic. "I tried to take what could never be mine," Jade started, remembering the searing power and pain the seventh fonon wrought in his body. "I wasn't ready to accept I'd never control the seventh fonon. I nearly died trying. My teacher, the former Locrian Colonel Gelda Nebilim, died saving me."

He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the calm, fragrant air. "I tried to revive her with the first recorded attempt at human fomicry. Of course, it failed. I don't know what exactly happened, but when I woke up I was laying in a snow bank with her blood still on my hands. Three days later the Order of Lorelei came into my home and arrested me." Distinctly, he could still remember those moments. He didn't resist or try to run, even if he could have killed them all in minutes. Somewhere, he remembered Nephry's pale, terrified expression. Not so much from having her brother taken away, but being left alone.

"It was privately decided that I would be sentenced to death, but the Order needed a signed sentence from the emperor for capital cases. So, I was brought to Grand Chokmah. You know the rest," Jade finished, glancing sideways at Peony.

"Let me guess- you haven't been able to forgive yourself since, and spent your entire adolescence steeped in self loathing and survivor's guilt?"

"Not the whole time," Jade replied, remember those few precious years he spent in relative happiness. And then of course, it was so quickly snatched away. "I like to consider myself well adjusted and sociable," he said jokingly.

"You're about as well adjusted as a liger in the ocean, Jade Curtiss."

Jade managed a half smile. Somehow, Peony was trying to make him feel better. And it was half working.

"Not to mention, I know a thing or two about survivor's guilt," Peony mentioned, admiring the ring of trees despite not knowing what they represented. "You may not have known this... But I'm the eldest of eight children. Heh, my dad got started early," he said, his eyes betraying the joke. "After the incident, I was secretly moved to Keterburg. I didn't even know my mother had died until you brought me here. I can only imagine she wanted to think as little about her life as she could."

Jade opted not to mention the significance of the trees in the garden. But he was deeply aware of what it meant for Peony to tell him this. He wondered if this is how Peony's father felt after a fifteen year old made romantic advances at him. Guilt mixed with the sweet poison of temptation. But now it was the guilt of the past, weighing upon him and not the guilt of a rather scandalizing age gap.

"I met her once," Jade mentioned softly. "It was at your father's 32nd birthday... I remember she told me 'He would be around your age'... Obviously, I didn't understand what she meant at the time, but even then, she thought of you."

"Thanks," Peony said, getting up and dusting himself off. "For letting me know," he explained, offering Jade a hand up. Graciously, Jade took his hand and the emperor didn't let go even long after they had returned to the palace.

-  
"Colonel Curtiss? Are you in?"

"Shit," Peony hissed, peeking over Jade's shoulder at the door. "I thought you said you were free this afternoon."

"It's almost six," Jade whispered back, considering where he could hide the emperor. Peony had decided to come and personally congratulate him on his promotion to Colonel at a record breaking age of twenty seven and by personally congratulate, he meant reclaim Jade's new colonel uniform.

"The meeting went on forever!"

"I have to get the door," Jade said, though Peony just flagrantly ignored him, catching him in another anxious, needy kiss. "I'm serious-"

"I'm serious about this," Peony said shortly, finally undoing the last of those damn buttons. Jade had gotten back from a year long tour on the Sheridan continent and he needed a refresher.

The knocking continued.

"Damn, he's persistant," Peony remarked in a low voice, fingers tracing the newly acquired, but fading scars on Jade's torso. There was an anxiousness that lingered whenever Jade left, though he was well aware Jade was more than capable of handling himself. But with every tour, some soldiers would return and some would not. He couldn't help but consider the day when Jade might not. This tended to result in situations like today, some report or another knocking on the door while he had Jade pinned flat on the desk beneath him. And while Jade indulged him, sometimes it wasn't quite enough. Selfishly, he wanted all of Jade, but there was always something about him that was just out of reach. But it didn't hurt to try.

"Just trying to do his job. Learn from example, your majesty," Jade said teasingly.

"Where did this happen?" Peony asked, steering the question away from his absence in a hearing at the present moment. His fingers traced a long pale scar, running from Jade's hip to mid thigh.

"Do you really have to mentally catalog every scar I come back with?" Jade asked, recalling the particularly nasty fight that resulted in that scar. "If you must know, the enemy attempted to disarm us and after a particularly grueling match they came away a lot worse than us."

"That's not exactly what I heard," Peony said, "I heard, a certain stupid someone stood in the face of a full canon barrage and then got cut up by a piece of shrapnel in the ensuing wrecking of the enemy's ship."

"Well, at least the canon barrage never reached us," Jade said, smiling faintly. Peony couldn't be lied to, at least, not when he could get the gossip from other talkative soldiers. He never once feared for his life in the face of that terrible, destructive wave, but it was a bit more than he could handle- he didn't even notice he was injured until his leg gave out under him after the battle.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Peony asked.

"Hardly. I'm trying not to let anyone die."

"Well, don't die in the process."

"I won't."

"Also, I'm getting you a mailbox."

-  
"Jade! Did you know about this?"

Peony's voice cut through the comforting silence of half sleep.

"Yes, the cost of produce has gone through the roof, but until the embargo is lifted-"

"No, I'm talking about this," Peony said, practically throwing a letter at him. He was flanked by his entourage of quadrupeds, now totaling a company of five. Peony had asked for one for his thirtieth birthday and Jade flat out refused. So he adopted three more.

Jade scanned the letter, not sure if this was a practical joke or the real deal. Then he read it again and understood exactly how much trouble he was in.

_...That's not quite right. I'm having an affair. Technically, not an affair, but there is a certain illicit nature to it that you would appreciate._...

Damnit, Peony, if you were going to write a letter to your deceased wife, have the decency to bury it or burn it or at least not keep it somewhere your estranged son will find it, Jade thought grumpily, folding it back up again. At least the late emperor had the common sense not to name any names.

"I don't know what you're asking about," Jade said mildly, feigning complete disinterest.

"My father had another woman! What if she bore an illegitimate child? What if they-"

"Life is not like those novels you like to read so much, Peony. It tends to be a lot duller."

"You must know something. You lived here!"

"Not all the time," Jade said and that statement was at the very least, not a blatant lie. "I was at the front lines for considerable periods of time, so what the late emperor did in his free time was none of my business or to my knowledge."

Peony still looked unconvinced, looking at the letter unhappily. "But I need to know. This could be politically destabilizing!"

"You know what's politically destabilizing? Your lack of a wife and an heir to the throne."

He made a face at Jade, indicating he's heard enough of that from his aides. Every additional year the suggestions become more and more frantic. And now even Jade was in on it.

"And I remind you Peony, your father got married at a considerably younger age."

"Yeah, well, I'm not my father! And I don't have my mother! And that came out badly!" Peony huffed, collapsing in a pile of tense limbs and frayed nerves. It had been a trying week indeed. "What would you think," Peony said quietly, "If I married?"

"I'm sure like most of the populace I would be somewhat relieved."

"But you're not most of the populace, Jade, since I'm not somewhat _involved _with the rest of the populace," he said a little suggestively.

"So, you want me to be jealous?"

"Maybe a little."

"What should come first, my country or you?"

"Well, I am the head of the country, so in reality, they are one and the same."

In the midst of their bantering, Peony had moved closer and closer until they were just inches apart.

"Well then, it wouldn't do to be jealous now would it-"

Peony just sighed, silencing that snarky mouth with his own.

"It wouldn't kill you just to speak honestly about how you feel, instead of constantly being a sarcastic prick," he said, pulling away.

"But you said you liked that about me."

"That I do," he said, and the discussion was closed. Or so he thought.

"I just want to know what kind of person she was," he said, almost to himself. Peony continued to obsess over the letter. Jade would catch him reading it, tucking it away quickly if Jade approached him, although it was too obvious what he was doing.

"Maybe it's better to think that you never found the letter at all," Jade suggested, to no avail.

"No. I have to know. And I will, one way or another."

Jade very much hoped he would never know. "Well, why don't you leave the sordid royal details to the gossip circles? They've already started on his unofficial biography, let them sort it out."

"Do you think they would know anything?" Peony asked hopefully.

"Hardly. Some of the rumors are borderline libel. Also, please get your entourage out of here," Jade said, pointing to the rappigs bumping into his legs, begging for attention. He could see how they got along almost co dependently with the monarch.

"But I don't want them to sleep alone!" Peony exclaimed.

"They have each other. Just put them in the other room," Jade suggested.

"But I don't want to sleep alone," Peony countered, looking meaningfully at Jade. While in their brief moments of freedom together they took full advantage of it, but Jade maintained his own residence within the palace. Subconsciously, he wasn't quite ready to share another emperor's bed.

He had to admit, he felt somewhat manipulated after he agreed to stay if Peony sent the rappigs out. But really, it is completely unhygienic to keep the animals in living quarters.

"What are you so afraid of?" Peony asked, after the lights went out and he was comfortably wrapped up in bed while Jade just sat on the other side, staring out the window.

"Of getting kicked to death in my sleep," Jade said wryly.

"Be serious."

"I am."

"Suit yourself," Peony said mildly, dozing off. For all the weight on his shoulders, Jade noticed Peony was an easy sleeper. Such a contrast to himself, where he never fully wanted to sleep, perhaps because then his nightmares could find him. Thirty years old and afraid of bad dreams. He disappointed himself.

"I just don't want you to hate me, that's all." he whispered, not sure if he was addressing Peony, or the ring of dogwood trees he could see through the bedroom window.

-  
Four years came and went in the blink of an eye. He served over two years on the brand new landship the_ Tartarus_, his informal 32nd birthday present. Meanwhile, everyone else wondered why Jade hadn't already been promoted to Lieutenant General, but he just laughed and said he didn't want to deal with the paperwork.

The issue with the letter only came up a few times and Jade hoped that Peony finally tired of it. But he knew full well Peony kept it in the nightstand drawer and that one day, he'd learn the truth.

It didn't mean he didn't dread the day until it finally arrived.

-  
It had been an accident, really. Jade had just returned from the border patrol again and was enjoying civilized amenities like hot water. He returned to Peony's bedroom after a well deserved bath, stopping short at the site of familiar correspondences in Peony's hands.

"Where did you get that?" He asked quietly, although he already knew the answer. Those were the letters from Peony during his first months on the front lines, when their landship had gone down behind enemy lines. After his death he couldn't bring himself to read them, but he always kept them in the inner pocket of his uniform jacket. The same jacket he had left folded over the chair in his room. The same jacket Peony had picked up out of curiosity, retrieving the packet of letters that slipped out onto the floor. "Those are private-" he started, reaching to take them back.

Peony jerked back, finally looking up at him, eyes ablaze with hurt, fury, and the kind of disgust Jade had grown used to in his childhood.

"It was you. You were the person he was talking about in that letter."

"This was a very long time ago Peony. The circumstances- I can explain-"

"You lied to me. I knew my father had an affair for five fucking years- I've known you for fifteen-" he stopped short, the realization hitting him. All the little signs that didn't add up until this one fact hit him straight in the face. It was humiliating. "You didn't say _anything_," he spat.

"I couldn't. What could I have said?" Jade had lost, that much was apparent. Everything Peony said was true.

"Get out," Peony said in a low voice, fists clenched. It would turn to violent, if Jade didn't leave. He wanted it to. He prayed Jade would disobey him. But that coward didn't even grant him that, turning to leave without another glance.

He couldn't bring himself to meet Peony's gaze. There was nothing to do but leave. As the door closed behind him, he heard something heavy and solid make contact with it, shattering.

On the floor of the bedroom lay the pieces of a fon globe, the water fonons dissipating and the miniature city in ruins.

-  
"Are we leaving so soon, Colonel Curtiss?" The smart alecky Fon Master Guardian (currently missing the Fon Master) burst into his office as she was prone to do.

"Not now, Anise," Jade said tersely, having retreated to the Tartarus after the fall out over the letters. He should have burned them years ago. This was the price he had to pay for sentimentality.

"Huh? I thought you heard about the reports in Engeve..."

Engeve. Nice rural sort of village, main export was produce and not well known for political strife.

"We're leaving for Engeve as soon as everyone is back," Jade said, letting the events of the past twenty four hours settle somewhere in what he imagined a very deep and dark pit to deal with when he returned.

Imagine when that return would be delayed by meeting an out of place Kimlascan noble in the farmer's market of Engeve. And then assisting both the noble and the village in wiping out the Liger problem in the cheagle inhabited forest on a whim. He should have really let things go, but instead arrested the boy and girl in the name of the empire.

Things really went downhill from there. After having the Tartarus boarded and having the misfortune to experience the latest fon suppression technology- that certainly had come a long way in twenty years- he realized he was caught up in something much, much bigger than himself.

But unfortunately, it was intimately tied to his past. Standing in the dusty hall of Choral Castle, he saw the same machinery he had worked with for the better part of his life in that lab. They were all his calculations, all his theories and algorithms, brought together and organized for a terrible purpose. He saw now, in the pained and confused expression on Luke's face, the horror of what he had done.

Just like he hadn't told Peony about what he knew about his father, he kept quiet about the fomicry. It would all come out in the end.

-  
The report was the first thing he read that day. The mining town of Akzeriuth was the victim of a massive cave in, resulting in the loss of the entire population and the personnel stationed there. Colonel Jade Curtiss was listed among the names of the dead.

Did he believe it? He didn't want to because then he would have to go on through life with the fact that the last thing he ever told Jade was 'Get out'. Not exactly the parting words he imagined when Jade tragically perished in war. And honestly, in the weeks Jade has been MIA he had a considerable amount of time to cool down.

He tried to look at it from another angle. That didn't exactly help, considering the other angle was his father, pardoning a juvenile who had already committed murder and heresy. And then what? The letters he had were just a few correspondences from when Jade was about seventeen. But the letter to his late mother and Jade were around the same time frame. It came to a point where he just didn't want to think about it at all and shoved the lot of them somewhere far in the back of his desk and mind. What happened happened. There wasn't anything he could do to change it.

Not that he wasn't still upset- but he told himself he'd deal with the anger when Jade showed his face again. Two birds with one stone. He just couldn't help but wonder- was he merely a substitute? Or a painful reminder of what Jade had lost? These were all questions he needed answered, and they would only be answered when Jade returned to the palace.

So in the meantime, he had to do his best to keep the deteriorating relations between the two kingdoms from completely falling apart. The world was really going to shit, it seemed.

-  
Of course, the truth never stays hidden for long. The nature of fomicry came out in the cold, clinical halls of Belkend Labs after cornering a scientist named Spinoza. Of course he recognized Jade. And of course, after they all realized he was the "Father of Fomicry" as they so tastefully put it, he was regarded differently. Not that he cared. He just wanted to end it all.

So they ended up in the Orition Caverns. There, he began to see the roots that extended from the seed that was his actions more than twenty years ago. It would likely result in the destruction of all life on Auldrant.

At Keterburg Bay, he was informed he was reported dead. Well, it wouldn't be the first time, he thought. This was also the second time he had ever returned to Keterburg since he arrived to get Peony. The reunion with his sister was much like their last meeting- she thought he was dead, once again, to her surprise he proved her wrong.

And then finally, he was standing at the gates of the Imperial City. Of course the news made it to Peony first, but with barely enough time to order everyone out of the audience chamber. Was it really him? The reports seemed favorable, but he couldn't say for sure until he was in front of him.

And what was he going to do when Jade was in front of him?

Well, Jade discovered first hand, that the moment he was in front of Peony, he got decked in the jaw. Peony really put his arm into it and it even sent his glasses fly off his face.

"I... deserved that," Jade said, hoping he would have time to see a healer since it was swelling up pretty quick.

"Yes, you did," Peony said hoarsely, before grabbing him without another word and just holding him, making sure he was real and solid and alive and breathing and _here._ "They told me you died."

"Did you believe them?"

"No. That's why I saved that for you."

"Yes, my jaw is thanking you right now," Jade said, hesitantly returning that embrace. "Am I forgiven, then?"

"Maybe. Tell me honestly- have you just been indulging my whims all this time, or wishing I was someone else?"

"Neither," Jade said quietly. "If you can remember, we didn't exactly get along in the beginning. You were thrown into this job without warning and I wasn't even given a day to grieve. But somewhere between the madness of it all, I grew attached, to the bizarre monarch who adopted farm animals."

"They are sensitive and wise creatures Jade, I keep telling you this," Peony shot back, finally smiling. "All right then, you're forgiven."

"Thinking about it, didn't you only start coming onto to me after Nephry turned you down?"

Peony look mock offended. "You and Nephry are nothing alike! Kissing you is like kissing a shark."

"Really."

"Yeah, sometimes I feel like you're going to bite my head off... Plus, you can be in love with two people at the same time."

"Are you?" Jade asked, a little curious Peony thought that way.

"No," he replied firmly."And you?"

"More or less the same as you."

"Good enough for me," Peony said, catching him in a shameless kiss. How he had missed this, mad as he was at Jade, he was so fully intertwined in his existence- it wasn't really fair at all.

"Luke and company should be here any minute," Jade reminded him.

"Who?"

He laughed. "Quite a few things happened between when I left, died, and came back to life."

And so he told Peony, as concisely as he could, about what had really transpired and why it looked like the world was slowly sliding off into the Qliphoth. he explained how he would have to leave more or less immediately, but that he could rest assured he would return. Peony held him to his word. They both had their respective duties to protect the world they wanted to live in together.

The End

Epilogue:

"Happy birthday, Peony," Jade said, handing the emperor a small, but heavy box. It was nearing dawn, which was testament to how long the emperor's 36th birthday party went on. But everyone had a reason to celebrate, since the dissolution of the Score and the consequent saving-of-the-planet business.

"You shouldn't have," Peony said with mock humility, though it was partially true- he had already gotten what he wished for when Jade finally returned to him.

The gift had taken some preparation. Jade had to dig into the soft earth beneath the eight dogwood tree to retrieve a small leather pouch containing the shards of that blue stone he replicated so many years ago. It had been laying in the earth every since the late emperor passed away. He apologized, for taking it back, and left a small bundle of letters in return. They would decompose much faster than rock, he assured the resting place of the eighth emperor of Malkuth.

Those remains became part of Peony's birthday gift, a new fonglobe, although technically not powered with fonons anymore.

"The crystal is just suspended in glass, I'm afraid I couldn't make something more intricate," Jade apologized, though Peony quickly hushed him. Holding it up to window, the blue shards caught the first rays of dawn, appearing like azure fire suspended in his hand.

"It's beautiful. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied and they sat together for a few more hours, just long enough to see the sun of a new day.

[A/N: There you go. Almost 22k words, so if anyone actually made it all the way through this, congratulations. I don't really know how I got around to writing this story. It also relies heavily on technicalities, mostly concerning age, so please forgive me. Also, the really awful title. And the name switching. And pretty much everything. But finally, I was able to write a happy ending (kind of). The fact that this might be the happiest fic I've ever written says something (at least, for ToA). All right, now this note has gone on for too long. Thanks for reading]


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